They died for our freedom during one of the bloodiest battles in humanity, but have no known graves.
Now a new exhibition aims to honour the lives of the lost soldiers of the Somme - and an appeal has been issued to trace their relatives.
Twelve battalions of the Bury-based Lancashire Fusiliers were drawn into the First World War conflict between July and November 1916.
The exhibition - due to open on July 2 at the Fusilier Museum in Bury - will tell the stories of Fusiliers who were laid to rest where they fell and are commemorated with so many others on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France. In total, 1,686 lost Lancashire Fusiliers are commemorated on the memorial.
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Staff at the museum are now searching for relatives of 20 soldiers who will be featured in the exhibition.
They include Privates Patrick Joseph Murphy and William Murfitt, Second Lieutenant James Calrow Sharp, Sergeant Liebig Cryer and Company Sergeant Majors Joseph Patrick Hastings, Ernest Bertram Wood and Francis Creegan.
Second Lieutenant Sharp, from Woolfold, Bury, died in October 1916 aged 22. CSM Hastings was 41 when he was killed in action on the second day of the Somme on July 2. The son of Michael and Margaret Hastings, from Bury, he had served with the Lancashire Fusiliers from 1891.
CSM Creegan, a former member of the Adelphi Lads’ Club in Salford, he was killed on July 1 1916 - the first day of the Somme - aged just 25.
The museum’s collections manager, Sarah Stevenson, said: “We so often see names inscribed on war memorials, not knowing who these men were or what they did.
“This exhibition gives us an opportunity to share these untold stories of ordinary local men who gave their lives during the First World War. Their stories are both heartbreaking and fascinating in equal measure.”
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Sgt Cryer’s family lived in Littleborough, Rochdale, as did CSM Wood’s relatives. Private Murphy’s wife lived in Cheetham Hill and Private Murfitt hailed from Tottington.
The exhibition is based on the work of a couple who have spent 10 years researching British soldiers lost at the Somme. Ken and Pam Linge used the Thiepval Memorial as a starting point as it lists only the names and service numbers of more than 72,000 men whose bodies were never found.
The first day of the Somme offensive on July 1, 1916 remains the worst day in British military history, with some 20,000 men killed and 40,000 wounded.
The ‘Missing of the Somme’ exhibition is due to open at the museum on July 2, a day after the centenary. Contact the museum on 0161 763 8950 or e-mail enquiries@fusiliermuseum.com.
